Word Pools! Mary Oliver's Sunrise

Submitted by Janet Lewison on 01 May 2011

You can
die for it--
an idea,
or the world. People
have done so,
brilliantly,
letting
their small bodies be bound
to the stake,
creating
an unforgettable
fury of light. But
this morning,
climbing the familiar hills
in the familiar
fabric of dawn, I thought
of China,
and India
and Europe, and I thought
how the sun
blazes
for everyone just
so joyfully
as it rises
under the lashes
of my own eyes, and I thought
I am so many!
What is my name?
What is the name
of the deep breath I would take
over and over
for all of us? Call it
whatever you want, it is
happiness, it is another one
of the ways to enter
fire.
In this expansive, flexibly mindful poem, the poet Mary Oliver follows a path of wonder through her own word pools of curiosity, humility and humanity.
Exulting in the freshness of morning sunlight, the poet explores the possible horizons she can imaginatively enter through the heat and light of the sun.
The rippling effects of Oliver's word pooling curiosity allow her mind to trace a path from one fiery experience to another, embracing a mood of wonder and courage, as well as communicating a tenderness for the very now of life itself.
These word pools playfully flow rythmically through the poem and the epiphany that our shared wonder and exultation at another day of life gives us the precious gift of happiness and 'fire' is joyful and uplifting.
Pooling our words allows our thoughts to become feelings and reveals the spiritual gift of wonder...
Word pools gift us a wandering sensibility to the 'fire' of existence!